The shy, the protective, and the unpredictable
by chromate
Summary: To Ryuzaki Sakuno, there was one person who was much shier than she was: Echizen Ryoma. A 5-stories one-shot about our favourite couple, Ryoma and Sakuno.


This sounds weird, but this was how this fic started. I returned to my dorm after lectures, turned on my laptop, and ideas started rushing into my head. This whole thing was done in around 5 hours in total I think.

It is divided into 3 parts: the shy, the protective, and the unpredictable. A total of 5 short stories are presented. Hope you enjoy them all.

Disclaimer: If I own Prince of Tennis I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

* * *

The Shy

* * *

Ryuzaki Sakuno was the shiest girl every student in Seigaku knew. It was a common fact. So complete surprise was an understatement when the shiest girl and the most arrogant boy anyone ever encountered in this planet were officially dating.

Fuji would have captured, with his precious camera, the moment Kaidou dropped his bandana; the second Inui dropped his data book; Momoshiro and Kikumaru's 'o'-shaped mouths for hours, if he himself had not frozen like a statue when he heard the news. Even Tezuka, the one known with no emotions, had to utter a 'what?' in response to the news.

Yes, the infamous, socially incompetent, cold, cocky star tennis player Echizen Ryoma had a girlfriend. None other than his ex-coach's granddaughter. What shocked people more was that they had been going out ever since their last year in junior high, so they had been dating for more than one year in secret already, with nobody having any clue. His senpai-tachi, for once, was impressed with him. Now that they were all in senior high, they tried, using all methods they could, to catch any glimpse of their intimate moments.

But there were none. He still smirked at anyone, uttering 'mada mada dane', while she still blushed easily upon the most unembarrassed thing on earth. They did not hold hands, hug, or kiss in school. Not a single trace of their behaviour pointed towards dating. If it was not for their ex-coach, Ryuzaki Sumire, who slipped the news out unintentionally, they would never suspect that for years what they had been teasing them about going out was actually true.

* * *

To Ryuzaki Sakuno, there was one person who was much shier than she was: Echizen Ryoma.

It sounded like Nanjirou had worn a skirt and danced on a tennis court, Sumire thought, when Sakuno told her about how they got together.

'_Hm, I wonder who sent me this letter…' fourteen-year-old Sakuno walked around the school campus. She had found a letter in her locker this morning, stating that 'Meet me at the sakura tree, 4pm'. Although she wanted to watch the male tennis team practice, she felt rude if she did not show up to whoever that wrote the letter._

_She arrived at the scene, and saw no one in sight. She was anxious. The District Preliminaries was approaching and although no one would doubt that Seigaku, the defending champion, would lose a single match, she still wanted to cheer for them. Especially this year Echizen Ryoma was appointed by Kaidou-senpai as the captain of the tennis team. She blushed upon thinking of him._

'_Oh, you're here already.'_

_She froze. She knew that voice too well._

_She slowly shifted her body to face the one she least expected to be there._

'_Ry-Ryoma-kun?' she managed to utter._

'_Hn.' The brown-haired girl could swear he saw a faint blush on his face, but concluded that it was impossible for THE Echizen Ryoma to blush._

_He had grown taller every since his first year in the school, and without a doubt became an icon for the tennis team. He had become more handsome, which attracted more fangirls (to both of their dismay). Yet he was still the same Echizen Ryoma: play tennis, play tennis, and sleep._

'_You…you were the one who wrote the note?'_

'…' _he looked around curiously, making sure nobody was there to eavesdrop on them. '…yes…_

'…_you see…'_

_Sakuno was dumbfounded. Throughout the two years they had known each other, they had gotten closer that one could easily tell what the other wanted. Yet this Ryoma-kun today was strange. She had never seen him stutter like her before._

'_I…' he opened his mouth again, but again, silence reached her ears._

_Sakuno was getting nervous. It was not like she was confessing, but the feeling that something big was going to happen…made her legs trembled._

'_Ano…happy birthday,' he finally said, holding a bouquet of red roses in front of her._

_Her eyes widened. She gasped. The girl dropped the note she was holding and ignored the wind that carried it away. She was too shocked to speak._

'…_and…I really like you…' Ryoma wished he had his cap now to cover his face, but since he's still wearing school uniform, his cap was nowhere to be seen. He gulped, his head lowered, his eyes found his shoes interesting to look at. This was probably the most embarrassing act he had ever done. He really should stop borrowing magazines from Nanako on 'how to surprise the girl you love a happy birthday'._

'…_and…I really really like you…would you go out with me?' finally, he blurted his feeling for a long time out. He lifted his face to see her reactions._

_She just stood there, her hand covering her mouth, which seemed to have no idea how to close._

_He guessed he had his answer, so he lowered his arms and whispered, in a sad tone, 'it's okay. I understand.' Before he turned to leave the scene, he heard her scream._

'_Ryoma-kun no baka!' and he felt a pair of arms wrapped around his chest. Tears poured from her eyes.

* * *

_

The Protective

* * *

'Ne, Ryoma-sama,' Ryoma sighed. He had never expected the fact that he had a girlfriend to spread out so fast within the school. His intention was to protect Sakuno, who already suffered from his crazy fangirls a lot for being 'too close' to him, yet now it seemed he had no choice but to let the news go. Many fangirls were heartbroken, but there were still some who were persistent enough to annoy him every day.

'What?' The fifteen-year-old replied impatiently.

'I do not understand this question. Could you please help me with that?' the said girl moaned. Ryoma hated it when he had to alone with no other than Sawaniko Komoto, the most troublesome of all fangirls of his. _Damn the English teacher for assigning me to tutor her in English_, Ryoma cursed mentally. Komoto was infamous for her affection, or rather obsession, towards the tennis prince. Before the news broke out, she had already been clinging to him any chance she had, even every time he shoved her away. She was quite pretty, Ryoma admitted, and had a nice physical appearance, but the green-haired boy hated it when she always bugged him till no tomorrow.

The bell had rung not long ago, signaling the end of the school day, but many were still staying in the classroom, waiting for various activities to begin. They gave the boy and the girl several uneasy glances. True, they knew that Ryoma hated Komoto, and she knew it too. True, they all knew Ryoma now was going out with Ryuzaki, who was in another class, and she knew it too. But the black-haired always seized different chances to try to get closer to the renowned prince, like intentionally asked her teacher to find someone to tutor her in English, which left the teacher no other choice but the one who was best in class. Yes, the Echizen Ryoma.

'Which one?' Ryoma asked coldly. He would not have given a damn if the girl failed, but the teacher threatened him about failing his grades, thus making him lose his regular spot in the tennis team.

Suddenly he felt something soft touched his arm. He turned to look at Komoto, who leaned her body on him from behind. She was speaking softly into his ears, while pressing her body more on his back. Ryoma knew what that soft texture was and blushed slightly. It was her boldest move so far. Though Ryoma never expected her to do this, IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS who was now staring at them with interest. Some gulped, afraid of how Echizen would react.

Ryoma stared at her for several seconds, vocalizing with his eyes that he wanted her to back off. She just kept on smiling and allowed her body to fully lean on his back. He raised his eyebrows when he felt her lips brushed through his neck, and whispering 'can you solve this, Ryoma-sama?' into his ears. His eyes widened in shock.

Yet the shocking part was not feeling the disappearance of her body heat on his back in a second, but a clear sound of 'smack' echoing across the classroom. The class looked in awe as a twin-braided teenaged girl's hand froze in mid-air. Tomoko could not hide her shock: she covered her wounded face with her hand and gazed at Sakuno with anger, but mostly fear. For once, the shiest girl of the school looked at her with eyes colder than Ryoma's and she could feel the tension pressing on her just by looking into her brown orbs.

Meanwhile, Momoshiro and Fuji, who accompanied her to Ryoma's classroom, stood with dropped jaws. When they saw that anonymous girl pecked on Ryoma's cheek, they immediately thought that Sakuno would cry and they had to yell for their kohai to comfort her. Yet she surprised everyone by rushing into the classroom and slapped the girl directly on the face.

She grabbed Ryoma's hand and dragged him along. 'Let's go, _my _Ryoma,' the whole class heard it well before seeing them disappeared out of their eyesight. Silence filled the room for a whole minute.

Who would have thought Ryuzaki would show her jealousy that publicly?

* * *

The male students, whoever entered Seigaku High, learned one simple rule quickly: never mess with Echizen Ryoma's property.

There were several tales about this golden rule. One was about a student who was not from Seishun Gakuen but joined the tennis club. He forgot to bring his racquet, so he took the one on the bench. Which belonged to the pillar of the Seishun Gakuen. That guy was instantly challenged by the green-haired, who used his right hand to control a broken racquet. Ryoma won 6-0 without losing a single point.

There was another one about his favourite white cap. For three years Ryoma had grown much taller than he was when he first entered Seigaku, but his trademark white cap was still sticking tightly on his head. Horio one day decided to play a friendly prank on him. While he was buying ponta from the vending machine, Horio took the cap from his head and grinned happily, bringing it to Momo and Eiji, which resulted in a who-get-Echizen's-cap contest in the tennis courts. Apart from receiving punishment from Tezuka, every participant got at least 5 tennis ball bruises on their body. Ryoma also crushed Momo and Eiji that day. The scores were 6-0 and 6-1.

Yet the forbidden rule was still about none other than Ryuzaki Sakuno. Everyone knew Ryoma had a possessive habit, and no one, not a single male habitant dared to ask Sakuno out after knowing a boy was absent from school the day after he grabbed the brown-eyed girl's shoulder rudely and was confronted by Ryoma afterwards. That was in junior high.

Ryoma did not totally mind male friends approaching her, after Sakuno's lectured him a thousand times. He would just keep his sharp eyes on them unnoticeably, and they knew well enough not to mess with him.

This transfer student was an exception. Out of all the girls in the school, he chose to flirt with the known princess of the prince. Everyone looked in horror when he cornered Sakuno, with her head in the middle of his hands on the wall.

Honestly, Sakuno had grown into a real beauty. She still kept her twin braids, but her body had developed a curve that was bond to attract male's attention, and her slim waist, her more mature countenance…the boys would have asked her out already if not for a certain tennis prodigy.

Either the blond was plain stupid, or he wanted to visit heaven as soon as possible. They had warned him about the consequences, but he snorted and said, 'I don't care who Echizen Ryoma is. I get what I want, and I want this girl.'

'Maki-kun, I told you already. I have a boyfriend now, and I don't plan on leaving him.' Sakuno looked straight into his eyes and stated firmly. Throughout the times, with Ryoma's lecture on her being too kind and too helpful, she had learned to defend herself at times. She would not be taken advantage of easily.

'Easy easy, my dear,' the boy named Maki smirked. 'Aren't you bored with a tennis freak? His brain revolves around that tiny ball only. And you have seen his fans. How can you be sure he is not cheating on you? You need someone who can be trusted, someone who pays attention to you and you only.' He moved his right hand to caress her cheek. 'Someone like me,' he pulled her closer to him, trying to steal a kiss from her lips. Sakuno shivered when she felt his breath on her neck and she turned aside, not wanting to face him directly. She flushed a bit and mentally sighed in despair. She was still too weak to handle these situations. _Ryoma-kun…save me…_

A tennis ball appeared from the end of the corridor and hit accurately on Maki's shoulder. He shrieked in pain and backed off, looking for the attacker desperately. He could just see the dead glare of Echizen Ryoma getting nearer to him.

'So you're that Echizen, I suppose,' the tall blond sniffed. Ryoma had no idea who he was. He just knew this guy had committed the unforgivable sin: trying to kiss his girlfriend.

'Get your filthy hands off my Sakuno, and never touch her again.' Students around were amused. Many of them had witnessed, or at least heard of, Sakuno's famous slapping a fortnight ago, and this time it's the boyfriend's turn. Ryoma arrived at their position and stood protectively in front of Sakuno. 'She is my girlfriend. Don't you dare harass her.' He demanded coldly.

Maki looked at him. Ryoma could tell from his blue eyes he was frightened, but just pretending to be fearless. 'I don't care if you're the prince or not. I like this girl and I want her to be my girlfriend.' He said shamelessly, as if being hit by a tennis ball was not enough to shut his mouth. Ryoma decided to ignore this guy, he was not worth it anyway. He grabbed Sakuno's wrist. 'Let's get out of here.' She nodded and followed him.

But the transfer student was more persistent than they imagined. 'Wait,' he grabbed Sakuno's other wrist. 'Why can't you give me a chance? You need someone strong to protect you, not someone who only knows how to hit a ball. A cold jerk like him is nothing compared with me.'

Before Sakuno could yell at him, Ryoma released his grip on her arm, spun around, and gave this guy a direct punch on his face. The fifteen years old girl gasped as the foreigner was thrown away by the force and landed several meters away. Yelps could be heard on the corridor, and everyone stopped whatever one was doing and watched the drama displayed in front of their eyelids.

Ryoma made one step forward, leaned his head towards Maki's lying position, and hissed in his most dangerous tone ever. 'Stay away from my girlfriend.'

He held the worried girl's hand and led her away from the crowd, who were amused by the couple. No wonder why they were the most discussed and popular couples in the whole school.

'Too bad I didn't bring my camera,' Fuji thought. 'It would have been marvelous to show this on their wedding day.'

* * *

The Unpredictable

* * *

Tennis was his love. There was no doubt about it. His priority was simple: tennis, then family (although he disliked his oyaji); Karupin; ponta; and lastly friends probably (he just did not mind their presence),

Until she came and single-handedly destroyed the orderly life he had been enjoying for years.

It was the Kantou Tournament Final, where they faced Rikkai Senior High School (three years in a row, Kikumaru noted). As usual, the results were head-to-head. The golden pair had taken the victory for Double 2, but Momoshiro and Kaidou lost in Double 1. For singles, Tezuka had defeated Kirihara Akaya in Single 3 but Fuji lost to Sanada in Single 2. Everyone in the stadium now waited anxiously for the Single 1 match, the replay of the last match of the Junior High's Nationals three years ago: Echizen Ryoma versus Yukimura Seiichi.

The match would begin in five minutes, and Ryoma was done with his warm-up. To be frank, he was quite excited about this coming match, as The Child of God was one of the strongest opponents he had ever faced. He was paying attention to Tezuka's lecture (they don't have a real coach, so Tezuka was in-charge of everything).He glanced around the crowd and could not see her presence. _She said she would be back in five minutes to watch me play_. He looked at a clock nearby. _It's been thirty minutes already. _

'Hey, do you know that an accident happened across the road?'

'Oh yeah, a girl was hit right?'

That caught his attention, slightly. He listened more carefully to what the two students from another high school were conversing about.

'Is that girl a student from Seigaku?'

This caught the whole team's attention.

'Hn…the uniform looked familiar, but I'm not sure. I only knew that the girl got long hair, you know, long and braided.'

'Oh, and they found a tennis racquet near the scene too. Probably she was a member of the tennis team also.'

Before the other regulars made a sound, they realized their Single 1 player had dropped his racquet and ran away from the court. 'Oishi and Momoshiro,' Tezuka ordered, 'if the victim is not Ryuzaki-san…bring him back. I'll talk to the referee to delay for a while.' The vice-captain and the dunk specialist nodded and ran after their kohai.

Ryoma was at loss. He kept running and running until he saw the edge of the road. _Stupid girl, stupid girl, stupid girl_. He asked her to buy him a ponta, and resulted in this? He promised to watch her practice tennis after their match with Rikkai. If anything happened to her…

'Get off,' he pushed through hundreds of watching, gossiping people and reached the front. His heart skipped a beat to see a twin-braided, brown-haired girl lying there. He quickly grabbed her shoulder.

'Ryoma-kun?'

He froze. That sound came from his back rather than his front.

'A-ano…' the girl he made contact with did have brown hair, braided, but she was not Sakuno. Ryoma recognized her as his classmate, whose name he did not remember. He swiftly turned around to see his desired figure standing among the crowd.

It was as if time had stopped and they just gazed into each other. Sakuno looked at him questioningly, while Ryoma stared with relief. 'Gomen, daijoubu?' he politely asked the girl lying on the ground. 'Oh I'm fine. I was just hit by the bicycle.' The green-haired boy raised his head to see the bike owner apologizing continuously to the girl.

He let go of her and stood up. He walked slowly towards Sakuno, who had no idea why he was here. Shouldn't he be playing now?

'Ano Ryoma-kun, why are you here? Your match…' but she was cut off when Ryoma barked.

'Where the hell have you been?' he asked angrily, his body shaking. 'Do you have any idea how worried I was when you did not come back after such a long time? And when I heard that a girl from our school was hit?' He accused her of everything, of making him worried, of troubling his mood before such an important match, for messing up his orderly life. Sakuno did not fight back. After the year they had been together, she knew him too well. She just showed him what she had in her hand.

Ryoma looked dumbfounded. '…grape ponta…?'

'Your favourite,' came her light tone. 'You always drink one before any of your matches, right? Actually I would have bought you one without you asking so, but the vending machine ran out of ponta, so I went to the stores a few blocks away to buy this.' She flashed him the smile which he melted every time. 'Gomen ne Ryoma-kun, I have you worried back then.'

Ryoma was, again, at loss. He had no idea what to say exactly but stared into her brown orbs. Acting by instinct, he threw his arms around her shoulders, holding her tightly. Yes, action speaks louder than words.

'Don't,' he started, 'don't ever scare me like that again.' He rested his head on her shoulder, ignoring other passer-by who looked at them curiously. As much as she was moved by his words, she had other stuff in mind.

'Ryoma-kun…how about your match?'

Oh.

Frankly speaking, Ryoma had forgotten about the match already. It was also after Sakuno's query that Ryoma realized, sometimes, tennis was not the most important thing in his fifteen years life.

'They probably have disqualified me by now.' Her eyes widened in shock. She was about to question him when he spoke again.

'Tennis is not everything.' He released the tight physical contact and looked into her eyes, smiling. 'I just proved that.'

He leaned on and his lips met hers. It was a soft one, but gradually turned into a more passionate kiss. She returned the favour, and pulled him closer to her.

'Echizen!' As much as he hoped not to destroy the intimate moment, Oishi knew he had to do it. 'Your match has been postponed for fifteen minutes. You can still make it to the match if you go now.'

Ryoma reluctantly broke free from the kiss they were enjoying and adjusted his white cap. Pulling Sakuno's hand, he motioned for her to follow him.

'I don't need ponta. I just need you to cheer for me.' Sakuno blushed a thousand shade of red upon hearing that, nodded and followed him back to the court.

Momoshiro and Oishi looked in awe. Who would have thought the unsociable, heartless, cold, arrogant, cocky, tennis-is-my-life kohai was such a hopeless romantic?

* * *

-The End-

* * *

Here, I hope you enjoy reading this. I actually tried to think of one with Sakuno doing the unpredictable things, but couldn't think of any appropriate one (some ideas will just turn this fic into M-rated).

Thanks for your time, and I have to do my stuff…again. I'm working on the new chapters of _So This is Christmas_ and _Dear Cousin _when I think of anything new to add, so please stay tuned!


End file.
